DISPATCHES FROM TOMORROW — Prediction markets, those cold-blooded arbiters of probable futures, are whispering of a Republican nomination already half-decided. Polymarket currently prices the leading GOP contender at 49 cents on the dollar for the 2028 presidential nomination — odds that suggest a front-runner with genuine momentum, though not yet a man standing alone at the finish line.

The stakes are considerable. The Republican Party, fresh from recent electoral contests, must decide whether to rally behind a familiar banner or seek new blood for a changing electorate. With some $2.9 million in daily volume flowing through this single market question, speculative money is speaking with unusual conviction. Market consensus, it bears noting, gives no other Republican rival anything approaching parity — leaving the field looking less like a race and more like a procession awaiting its formal start.

Yet the procession may yet be interrupted. A legal entanglement, a late-charging challenger, or a shift in the national mood could redistribute those 51 remaining cents with considerable haste.